Low-income Tennesseans will likely not be able to obtain supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) benefits beyond February if the federal government shutdown continues.

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Mary Grace Stoneking and Russ Overby work for the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee.

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Minnie Mitchell, left, Anna Davenport, Allison Thigpen and LaTrisha Jemison participated in a challenge in which they buy food for a fake family of four using the equivalent of federal benefits. (File)(Photo11: Steven S. Harman / The Tennessean)

With our ongoing partial federal government shutdown now the longest in history, the wide-ranging effects are rippling out into the daily lives of many Tennesseans.

As lawyers and advocates for Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, we are witnessing these effects firsthand as we provide free legal representation and advice for low-income Tennesseans.

Because many of our clients have incomes below the poverty level, they depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly referred to as food stamps, to have enough to eat.

Our clients, and more than 900,000 other Tennesseans — including indigent children, the elderly and people with disabilities — are facing the very real prospect of having their access to SNAP cut off if the government shutdown continues.

February SNAP benefits coming Sunday, but that may be it for a while

SNAP is funded through the annual federal appropriations process, which is affected by the shutdown.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), if the Tennessee Department of Human Services is able to issue February SNAP benefits by Sunday, Tennesseans will receive their February benefits. DHS has stated that they will issue February benefits on or before Sunday.

If that takes place, the only remaining funding for SNAP benefits will be a $3 billion USDA “contingency reserve.” However, this reserve is not enough to fully fund a single month of SNAP. It is also the only funding available to use for new applicants and to provide February benefits in states that are not able to meet the Sunday deadline.

Unfortunately, we don’t know if Tennesseans who apply for SNAP after Sunday would receive any benefits at all. It will depend on how much of the contingency funding has been used up.

Many of our clients who apply for SNAP for the first time are domestic violence victims who are fleeing an abuser and have little or no income. Others are families in which a family member has lost a job or incurred huge medical bills.

In other words, they are ordinary Tennesseans who would not normally rely on SNAP benefits except for a temporary circumstance beyond their control.

Most families who depend on food benefits are struggling

In the United States, around 92 percent of those receiving SNAP benefits have income below the poverty level at the time of their application, 70 percent are families with children and nearly one-third are disabled persons.

Many families will struggle to feed their children, and those with disabilities who already incur high medical bills and struggle to work will face hunger. More than 467,000 children in Tennessee are in households that use SNAP, according to the USDA.

One of our clients is a disabled grandmother caring for her grandson. She says, “SNAP is one of the only ways we can get food for our house, because my medicine is so expensive. If my SNAP runs out, I have to decide ‘Do I want to eat or do I want to get my medicine?’” Without SNAP, she says, she and her grandson will not be able to afford the food they need.

Cutting off SNAP benefits due to the shutdown would also have a broad adverse economic effect on Tennessee.

Tennessee SNAP participants received about $1.59 billion in SNAP benefits in 2017. They use these benefits to purchase food from small and large Tennessee grocers.

The growth of retailers who participate in SNAP has made the program an important part of the food industry and local economies. In 2009, during the recession, SNAP participants spent $50 billion in benefits, which generated about $85 billion in local economic activity.

If this shutdown continues, we are concerned about what will happen to our clients and more than 900,000 other low-income Tennesseans. There will be many children, families and older adults who may not get enough to eat; there will likely be more burdens placed on emergency assistance organizations, such as food banks; and the Tennessee economy at both the state and local levels is likely to be adversely affected.

Mary Grace Stoneking is the SNAP community outreach coordinator and Russ Overby is lead attorney for the health benefits and education practice group of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, which serves 48 counties and advocates for fairness and justice under the law. Learn more at www.las.org.

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